CNN ran an article about a sugar detox diet the other day. Did anyone see it?

I don't really believe in the detox aspect, but it seemed like a good inspiration to eat less calories. Sweets and starchy foods are my usual binge foods, so maybe cutting them totally at first will help me improve?

Here's what they explained on CNN:

First 3 days:
breakfast -could be 3 eggs
lunch- salad and 6 oz protein
dinner- vegetables and 6 oz protein
snacks- 1 serving of nuts; hummus and green pepper
(I guess there's probably more to it if you pay for whatever they're selling, which I am not suggesting)

Next few weeks
slowly add in fruit, some dairy, 1 serving high fiber crackers/day, 2 other servings of carbs/day



I've done 2 days so far! I modified several things: added a lot of veggies to the eggs; ate my usual bowl of fiber cereal with milk and a few berries instead of the lunch or dinner on the diet each day; had 2 servings of nuts; ate some cucumbers. I've been pretty satisfied minus some emotionally motivated sweet cravings. Kept to 1500 cal yesterday and might hit 1200 today. Hoping the scale goes down.

What do you think, is this a good idea?

Thanks!

It sounds like a lot of other diets out there. I do south beach which is pretty similar and I also stick to 1500 calories a day. I dropped the carb craving pretty quickly, but the sugar craving is way harder on me.

Hi Msgooch,
Yeah, I've been dying to get past the first 3 days where I can have a little bread and carbs again (even though I'm already having cereal). But sweet carbs are definitely what I like most (cookies, anything chocolate, etc), so I understand what you are saying how difficult it is.

Maybe it's good at the moment I'm looking forward to an English Muffin instead of chocolate cake

kaatapeete,
Did you mean you're trying this sugar detox thing too?

Scale went down 1.4lbs this morning. Today's day 3.

Sugar isn't a toxin.
While almost anyone can benefit from reducing sugar in her diet, especially HFCS based, CNN associating sugar with poison, and using the "detox" buzzword puts me off. Always looking for easy buttons to press for maximum reaction, that lot.

Hi Kerry,
Well, to tell you the truth, I really agree with you. I think the "detox" thing sounds like a bunch of baloney and it is unfortunate that CNN is taking advantage of this, like you said.

Normally, I wouldn't look at articles like that, but I guess between the facts that it was from a somewhat more credible source than where I'd usually expect to find stuff like that, and there wasn't anything else interesting popping up on my phone at that moment, I got inspired to read it. And it turned out to be a reasonably sensible diet that I thought might be helpful for me in spite of the garbage about how it will make your skin glow, etc.

I just wanted to post that the scale went down another 1.4 lbs. Yay!

In case anyone is skimming through this thread, I'm primarily relying on calorie counting, and just used the "sugar detox" thing as a way to change my routine, I'm not suggesting it as a diet on its own. Maybe I should have put a different title on this thread.

Interesting! Before trying this diet, did you get a substantive amount of calories from sweet things? (like desserts, candy etc) As someone who doesn't really like sweet stuff, I wonder if trying this out will be any help for me.

Hi Waffle,
Yes, I got a substantive amount of calories from sweets before 4 days ago. Usually even when I go on a diet, I save calories to have sweets most days.

I should probably go back to eating like that. That was my usual diet for a few years. I wasn't super strict, but I'd say 70% of my meals were on the low carb side, and I avoided major sugar bombs. I dropped weight like crazy, and I wasn't even overweight when I started eating that way. I didn't feel deprived. It just became a habit to eat that way, and fortunately an enjoyable habit because I love protein and lots of veg. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, although I do love some items that I'll refrain from mentioning in case they're hard for you to read now.

I hope you have continued success with it, myst! This thread's timing was a helpful reminder for me. I'm glad you posted it!

Thanks Chunkahlunkah! Glad this works for you!

Detox might seem like a bad word to use. But it is a lot more accurate than most people would think. I don't doubt for a second that most people in our country are addicted to sugar. And not just because of sweets and deserts. Foods that you wouldn't think have any or much sugar are actually full of it. If you have Netflix, check out Fed Up or Sugar Coated. Both really interesting documentaries.

I've been Keto since March 26th. It's a low carb, high fat, moderate protein diet and I've lost more weight in the last few mouths than I did in years from diets that still included sugar and grains. Breaking the sugar addiction turned out to be key for me. When you have an addiction, even small amounts are going to do nothing but make you want more. Some people have better control than others and I'm just not one of them.

What you are doing seems to be working well for you so far.

Hmm. I did not hear about this diet but I have recently been trying to cut down on sugar, so I bought a nice little smoothie recipe book which has been a GOD SEND!!

It's called

and I bought it on Amazon for only $0.99! LOL

I also am starting a diet called DASH diet. I found another $0.99 book for that on amazon too.

The book is called DASH Diet Made Easy: 25 DASH Diet Recipes for Beginners!

by Oyam Zeza

I saw this article from CNN, and thought it would be good to do it. I was eating alot of sugar and alot of dairy (over a half gallon of milk a day, plus other dairy). I also started a daily tracking of food and steps and meals and weight. So when i started day 1, i weighed 286.

Following the detox to the letter for the first 3 days
breakfast -could be 3 eggs
lunch- salad and 6 oz protein
dinner- vegetables and 6 oz protein
snacks- 1 serving of nuts; hummus and green pepper

Drinking only water and eliminating dairy, milk, anything with sugar in it.

It was difficult but after the first 3 days, my weigh in for day 4 was 269 (down 17lbs).

While most of it is probably eliminating a lot of the bloating, i do feel it will continue to help me loose weight and get to my goal of 225lbs

congratulations rkonopka!

I am on day 4 of CNN sugar detox plan and following it to the core. Eating lentils, chickpeas, peanut butter, hummus, eggs, avocado, cauliflower, almonds and pistachio. I have been weighing myself every day but was very sad to see no change in my weight after all the sacrifice when there was no result.
Today is Day 4, I added an apple and 1 serving of dairy (i picked yogurt- plain yogurt) to my diet. It's hard to keep going when you don't see any results. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. Am I being impatient? maybe after a full week I will see result. Any one else in my shoes?